Yemen grapples with border closures that could spur 'the largest famine the world has seen for many decades'

Abdo Hyder / AFP/Getty Images

Yemen's rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Nov. 7, 2017. The city is the entry point for roughly 70% of Yemen’s food imports, including those reaching the capital city.

Yemen's rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Nov. 7, 2017. The city is the entry point for roughly 70% of Yemen’s food imports, including those reaching the capital city.

(Abdo Hyder / AFP/Getty Images)

Nabih BulosLos Angeles Times

Even for Yemenis accustomed to the brutal economies of life under a years-long siege, the effect of a blockade of all air, sea and land ports into the country was a surprise.

“Food merchants immediately doubled all their prices. Fuel, in one moment, disappeared from the markets and the price of what remains is insanely high,” said Yemeni civil rights activist Baraa Shaiban in a phone interview on from London.

“And those who are sick, who need to travel for treatment, they’re the worst hit.”

The result of the closure by a Saudi Arabian-led coalition could be a famine affecting “millions of victims,” said Mark Lowcock the U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, in a briefing at the U.N. Security Council.

“It will not be like the famine that we saw in South Sudan earlier in the year where tens of thousands of people were affected. It will not be like the famine which cost 250,000 people their lives in Somalia in 2011,” said Lowcock. "It will be the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims.”

The coalition’s imposition of the blockade on Monday came after the Houthis -- the rebels who seized the reins of power three years ago and which Saudi Arabia views as a proxy for Iran — launched a ballistic missile targeting the airport of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Though the projectile was intercepted, the incident enraged Saudi leaders, who called it an act of war by Iran.

In response, the coalition sealed off the country to “address vulnerabilities” in its inspection procedures, which had already slowed aid deliveries to a crawl in Houthi-controlled ports such as Saleefah and Hodeidah. The latter is main entry point for roughly 70% of Yemen’s food imports, including those reaching the capital, Sanaa.

The coalition even shut down down those entry points under the control of its ally, the internationally recognized government-in-exile of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, which the coalition has supported with a bombing campaign that human rights organizations say has killed or wounded tens of thousands of civilians. It also imposed a siege beginning in March 2015 that has all but crippled Yemenis’ ability to cope and precipitated a wide-scale cholera crisis that has affected some 900,000 people.

The U.S. has provided arms as well as logistical support (including mid-air refueling) to the coalition.

Abdo Hyder / AFP/Getty Images

This photo taken on Nov. 05, 2017 shows a malnourished Yemeni child receiving treatment at a hospital in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. Humanitarian responders have this year provided direct aid to more than seven million Yemenis living on the brink of famine, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This photo taken on Nov. 05, 2017 shows a malnourished Yemeni child receiving treatment at a hospital in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah. Humanitarian responders have this year provided direct aid to more than seven million Yemenis living on the brink of famine, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

(Abdo Hyder / AFP/Getty Images)

EPA

A malnourished Yemeni child receives treatment at a hospital in Sanaa., Yemen, on Oct. 4, 2017. According to the U.N., more than three million Yemeni children under the age of five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition after more than two years of escalating conflict between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

A malnourished Yemeni child receives treatment at a hospital in Sanaa., Yemen, on Oct. 4, 2017. According to the U.N., more than three million Yemeni children under the age of five are at risk of severe acute malnutrition after more than two years of escalating conflict between Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

(EPA)

The Red Cross said on Tuesday the latest closure prevented it from delivering a shipment of chlorine tablets, necessary for the prevention of cholera, and fears that it will not be able to deliver 50,000 vials of much-needed insulin.

Humanitarians’ access to the country has also been impeded, said the U.N.

“Saudi is killing Yemenis not only with cluster bombs, but with starvation and disease,” said Nasser Arrabyee, a Sanaa-based journalist, in a phone interview on Thursday. “It’s a matter of life and death for us.”

Saudi Arabia blamed the Houthis, saying in a letter delivered the U.N. on Wednesday that their “continued resort to violence, refusal to return to legitimacy and abide by the relevant Security Council resolutions, have resulted in the catastrophic humanitarian situation and is obstructing the political solution to the conflict.”

It accused Iran of manufacturing and supplying the missile launched by the Houthis, which it said was “clear evidence of Iran’s hostile behavior.”

“Iran’s continued role in smuggling weapons to the Houthis is a clear sign of its complete disregard for international obligations.”

The closures come as part of a larger escalation by Saudi Arabia against what it sees as Iranian interference in the region. Over the past week, it has de-facto deposed Saad Hariri, Lebanon’s prime minister and is holding him against his will, according to Hariri’s party.

The Nicki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said on Tuesday that her government was “committed to containing Iran’s destabilizing actions and will not turn a blind eye to these serious violations of international law by the Iranian regime.”

There were reports earlier in the week that Saudi would allow work to resume at the southern port of Aden, but it was still unclear if aid boats have been able to dock, said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, in a phone interview on Thursday,

But even if aid could reach Aden, he said, it is only one of several ports already being used for humanitarian access.

“It’s not an alternative, and it doesn’t have enough capacity to substitute for Hodeidah and Saleefah,” said McGoldrick. Aside from food, he added, the lack of fuel, used to pump clean water, have forced people to “take a gamble” on unclean water and exacerbate the cholera challenge.

Hani Mohammed / AP

A boy rinses a bucket as he and others collect water from a well that is allegedly contaminated with cholera bacteria, on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen, on July 12, 2017.

A boy rinses a bucket as he and others collect water from a well that is allegedly contaminated with cholera bacteria, on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen, on July 12, 2017.

(Hani Mohammed / AP)

Shipping aid to Aden would force humanitarians to truck shipments to Sanaa, almost 200 miles to the northwest, and other Houthi-controlled areas in the north of the country; a journey of at anywhere from 12 to 18 hours across a chaotic battlefield with dozens of checkpoints under the control of a patchwork of militias.

It would also allow the coalition to control aid flows in the country — a chilling development for those living in Houthi-controlled areas, said Kristin Beckerle, Yemen researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“Given the coalition’s immense power over what goes in and out of Yemen, their ability to affect civilian life is exponential,” said Beckerle.

“Forgetting politics, Sanaa is the largest population center, with people who have nothing to do with the war. It’s… willful ignorance of what it means to civilians to close particular ports of entry.”

And although she welcomed the opening of Aden’s port, she warned that reliance on Aden should not become the permanent arrangement.

“Even before Monday the UN was raising the alarm bells and saying it needs more access… and the coalition did the exact opposite,” she said, adding that other closures that hurt civilians, such as Sanaa airport (which closed in August 2016), had been allowed to become the status quo.

“Aden port will be a positive development from where we were on Monday, but that’s not the baseline.”

Abdo Hyder / AFP/Getty Images

A crane unloads wheat from a cargo ship in Yemen's rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Nov. 7, 2017.

A crane unloads wheat from a cargo ship in Yemen's rebel-held Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Nov. 7, 2017.